50 * 



Report 071 the MacJcenzie Manuscripts. 



[Jan. 



dans, who returned discomfited to Ginjee. Irruption of the Mah^ 

 ratias into the country, seizure of Tanjore, tribute imposed by them 

 on other places. Pioceedings of Sivaji in the lower Carnatic. 

 Arrival of the English at Chevnapalnam (Madras). Notice of other 

 Europeans. From this time forwards, there is a minute, and generally 

 correct, detail of the proceedings of the English and French in con- 

 nexion with the Nabob on the one part, and Chwida saheb, &c. on the 

 other part. The French capture of Ginjee is circumstantially stated. 

 The whole of the connected and subsequent transactions are interwo- 

 ven with details as to motives on the part of native princes, such as 

 perhaps our English historians, who have gone over the same ground, 

 may not have so fully known. Hyder ALi and Tippool's proceedings 

 are fully described, and the commanding interest of the narrative may 

 be considered to close wifh the final capture of Seringapatam, and its 

 celebration at Madras. The author however continues his narrative 

 onwards a few years later ; and closes with a reference to the regulati- 

 on of the Arcot country, and its management by his patron Colonel W. 

 Macleod, as Commissioner. 



Bemark. — In a general retrospect of the contents of this large ma- 

 nuscript, it appears that the suggestion of an English gentleman, pro- 

 duced that rare result a native Hindu historian, writing under the in- 

 fluence of good sense, and in conformity, to a prevailing degree, with 

 European notions of history. In an abstract, I have not felt myself 

 obliged to verify or compare his dates and facts with other authori- 

 ties. There are probably some anachronisms and errors, but the value 

 of the whole seems to me considerable, and the eighth section, down to 

 the arrival of the English, invaluable. To me that matter is new, and 

 with the incidental co-incidences derivable from other papers in this 

 collection a narrative may now be carried upwards, with some degree 

 of certainty, to the era of Criahna Rayer, about which time there is only 

 a short interval of an archy till we reach the regular Chola government. 

 The whole manuscvipt,but especially the first half of the eighth section,, 

 ought, I am of opinion, to be carefully translated and edited. 



Professor Wilson's notice of this MS. (Des. Cat. vol. I. p. 199) is as 

 follows — " si, Kernata rojakal, a palm-leaf, b do. c do. d do. An account 

 of the sovereigns of the Carnatic. After a short notice of Yudhishtira^ 

 and his brethren and of some Hindu princes of the lunar family, the 

 MS. gives an account of the Mogul sovereigns of Hindu8tan,a.nd the fa- 

 mily of Nizam AH — MS. b is an abridgment." 



On reading this notice, I w-ent to the Literary Society's Rooms, and 



